Ruth and Izaias Daniel de Assis with Jonathan

St Giles contact: Lois Clark

Ruth first went to Brazil in 1992 to work with street children. In 1997 she married Brazilian pastor Izaias and they set up Mission Ver ‘Life and Hope Restored’ in the city of Belo Horizonte. This serves a deprived area of the city by providing education for children who might otherwise be on the streets. The school facilities are also used for community projects. Sponsorship is vital in enabling the school to meet expenses. The school is now run by Brazilian staff.

In January 2009, the family moved north to Carire which is a less well developed area of Brazil. Here they have planted and lead Proclamation Church –proclaiming Jesus in word and action. With cell groups and individual mentoring as fundamental to their programme the church has been growing steadily. Currently (2016) the church meets in a large marquee on rented land, but they have now bought land for building. After setting up a gypsum brickmaking workshop which will offer employment to local people, they plan to build a hall which will serve as community centre and church. Future plans include a school,,sports hall and church..

Jonathan (born 1999) plays an active part in the church and aims to attend a Christian college.

Alf and Hilary

St Giles contact: Simon & Denise Bridgens

Alf is Anglo-Chilean and an ordained Anglican minister, and Hilary grew up in South America where her parents were missionaries. They have built up the thriving, and still growing, church of La Trinidad which focuses on evangelism, discipleship, and training, and has in turn successfully planted a number of other churches which have become self- supporting. Alf is preparing the church for his retirement, possibly in 2018.

In March 2014 Alf completed a four year term as chaplain to the president of Chile, during which time he played a key role in mobilising prayer for the trapped miners. He has an international ministry in teaching and evangelism and in March 2016 was consecrated auxiliary bishop with responsibility for church-planting.

They have 4 adult children and a growing collection of grandchildren.

Ann

St Giles contact: Liz Kitwood

Ann was a GP in Long Buckby before working for some years in a mission hospital in Kenya. After further bible training, she moved to another less well developed country with little government investment in health care.

She worked for 11 years developing the work of the 40 health centres and a 180 bed hospital which operate under the umbrella of the Evangelical Church of that country providing both medical care and spiritual outreach. Ann had varied roles: medical practice, teaching, (the hospital has a nurse training school), monitoring and helping to raise medical standards and improving the financial management of the health centres. She was involved in a local church and would have loved to find time to learn the local language and contribute more to the work of the church.

In April 2015, responding to AIM's redefined focus on mission and church planting in new areas, Ann moved to a town which has been little impacted by the gospel. Here she leads a small mission team, works 2 days per week in a hospital, supports a new health centre, encourages the women in a small indigenous church and seeks to build relationships in her local community.

Vera Zhuravleva - Russia

​St Giles contact: Judith Cooper

Vera works in Russia orgainsing activities in the Bible Centre for Christian families, young people and adults. Her team also run summer youth and family camps.

In recent years Vera has overseen the refurbishment of a house in a village known as The House of Hope and this is now a centre for retreats, training events and camps. Vera has developed an outreach ministry to the people in this very needy village where many families are affected by alcoholism and children are vulnerable. She and her volunteers also support a local children's home and a centre for the disabled.

Peter and Gill Vriend, David and Jessica - Chiang Mai, Thailand

St Giles contact: Jacqueline WienKamp

The Vriend family served with Youth With A Mission (YWAM) in Penang, Malaysia for 6 years where they pioneered work in counselling, prayer ministry and training others in this work. They ran 3 YWAM ‘Foundations for Counselling Ministry’ courses, an intensive full time 12 week course, followed by a field assignment, seeking in particular to enable the trainees to minister God’s healing love and power to others. They had a mix of ongoing and one- off opportunities, including among migrant workers, trafficked women, refugees and Christian workers and Peter was able to offer administrative help to YWAM.

In August 2013 they relocated to Chiang Mai. The plan was for their first 12-18 months to be spent learning Thai language and culture; this is required by YWAM and is essential for understanding Thailand and her people, also to use this time to pray, establish strong foundations, and make necessary connections for the future. Gill’s plan is to establish a counselling and prayer ministry training programme as she did in Penang, and is looking to build a team to help in this. She has developed a particular heart for helping trafficked people. Peter may pursue opportunities in community development - helping the poor and needy in holistic ways, but in this initial phase has engaged in several administrative and financial roles including for YWAM.

Thailand is a strongly Buddhist country of about 68 million people. The king is revered like a deity. In the north of Thailand, many hill tribe people have become Christians, but overall in the nation only 0.7% of Thais are Christian.

Dave and Jessica (1999 and 2001) attend Grace International School in Chiang Mai, (a school for missionary children that follows the American curriculum).

Short term mission

We encourage participation in short term mission ventures, which is mostly taken up as a gap year activity.

Other mission interest

We support the persecuted church, mainly through Barnabas Fund and relief and development work through Tear Fund